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Well I would say only part of the USN CV line needs a buff to their loadout in order to balance it against their same tier IJN counterpart and that's probably only for tier 8 and above given the amount of squadrons the IJN CVs have at those tiers and the AA in relation to strike aircraft (For example, if you pick stock lexi, u get 1 fighter, 1 tb and 1 db. You can provide some AA cover but when it comes to striking targets you're screwed by AA since they'll just melt. Strike gives you the capability to deal with even tier 10 BB AA but you lack the AA coverage you can provide for the team and you get the drift for AS by now). Essex and Midway are part way there in terms of loadout but still suffer compare to their same tier counterparts. Not that they're very weak but you have to spend more effort when playing them compared to playing the Taiho or Haku. That being said I think Inde and Ranger are still fine where they are. Slightly tough to play a 1/1/1 Ranger but not impossible.

Well WG did say they're gonna tweak the usn loadouts if im not wrong.

Well if RNGesus is with you those HE bombs can pack a punch. I once got a devastating strike on a Roon of all things just using the 3 DB squad. I thought my eyes was playing tricks with me. It wasn't even a detonation. Just RNGesus guiding those beautiful bombs on the Roon and poof he's gone.

Well I guess it's about time the IJN CV got some form of nerfing. I might not necessary like it but I guess it'll balance IJN and USN CVs abit. There are times when you kill off the IJN fighter squads after a hard fight with your solo USN fighter squad only to have them pop back up again before you can do much. Look on the bright side at least WG isn't playing around with other forms of nerf with IJN CVs at the moment. This is pretty light and fair for both lines tbh. If Zerra is to be believed.

Given what I've read so far I'll keep my 1000 pd HE bomb. Sure it'll be lesser than what the AP bombs can do but I'm more or less guaranteed damage on all targets. Imagine I have to kill a DD that's capping and I'm only left with DBs. I'll have to pray the AP bombs overpen the DD to death ;) Edit: Finally done with the Lexi grind. Last 5/6 games all losses though :(

Hahaha we'll see how it goes. Grinded both CV lines to tier 9 so far and I have to say the USN line is actually pretty ok so far for me. Pretty sure the Essex will be as well although I'm wondering if the new loadouts will come soon. If not I'll just play strike essex.

Well Im almost done with mine. Just need 1 win and its done. Unfortunately the last 3 games were losses :( Definitely not tier 10 BBs though. Just bombed a Frederick De Grosse and shaved off 1/3 of his health. 13 bomb hits and 3 fires and I don't even think I lost a plane going in.

Whatever Commander_Cornflakes has said. On the strafing out part since you start off with 7 fighters you still have 6 after escaping plus Ranger has a decent hanger so you can still play around with the fighter. Personally, I usually just play 1 game in my Ranger a day. With premium account it took me 34 games to grind the Lexi (free exped the hull and plane and just grind from hull b to lexi).

Hahahaha well I'm a potato so I can still be outplayed. Just finished a match in kaga. Loss 6 DBs & 1 TB to the Nelson. On the other hand i saw a gamescon Monarch. No plane loss (so poor AA?) and a fast game for the poor sod.

To be honest I think CV gameplay is different from RTS, at least not the traditional kind. The closest would be the Dawn of War type of tactical gameplay since it heavily relies on troop movement only and forgoes base building and the sort.

Isn't that the whole purpose of CV gameplay? To outplay, outsmart and outlast the other CV player? Remember you can strafe out too in a dogfight against his fighters so it becomes who can outplay the other. Consider this scenario. While you lose 1 plane if you strafe out immediately but compared to a dogfight overall you lose lesser planes. Then you use that escaping squad as a bait and while he chases with his 2 fighter squad you strafe with the other squad. I know it doesn't happen all the time given that there are people who are smart enough not to chase your planes or not fall for your trap but heck that's CV gameplay for you. Its not about select this squad and drop on that target or click on those fighters etc etc. There is plenty of things you can try to do. For example you say you have to bait the enemy to one side of the map, but have you considered baiting them over friendly AA? Fought an AS Ranger with 1/1/1 Ranger before. I strafed out and lose 1 plane out of 7, then proceed to fly around the map where all my friendly ships are. It ended with him losing all 14 planes while I only lost that 1 single fighter. Plenty of tactics to try out as a CV player ;)

Trust me there are worst CV players out there than you do like that Enterprise player I played against and even if you're bad you're willing to learn so in the end you're still not the worse. I torped and Edinburgh in smoke yesterday with my Kaga. He was a good sport though and I suspect plays CV at tier 4 and 5 cause he went "You can hit targets without being able to lock on to them?" and I just said yes. Lol goes to show how removing manual drop and strafe at tier 4 and 5 was a bad idea. Perhaps just reintroduce it at tier 5 so players can learn and I can play my 1/1/0 Bogue again to farm Clear Sky

@15JG52Adler Thank you. The Big E was a super potato tbh ;) My strike planes literally flew past his fighters on the way to strike his friendlies and he just ignored them and flew towards our cap for some reason. Then I sailed forward enough to be within 10km of him and still manage to sink him. True. I guess I may enjoy the 1/1/3 loadout alot. I've experienced the despair of playing a strike lexi against a strong AS opponent. This is the opposite I guess. Its even better than fighting against another strike lexi tbh.

I never knew my Lexi could achieve such a performance. Even in death it sank a Bismark from almost full health. And I got complimented.

Was playing strike lexi the other day and reduced the health of a low health NC even further. Teammate in Fuso proceeded to sink the NC and complimented me for saving his bacon. Its not about farming damage, its about farming damage tactically. I think alot of salt stem from the fact that there are CV players who focus too much on only causing pure damage and sinking ships rather than doing damage or sink ship on a tactical level. For example in a domination game at the start you see a potato enemy fuso at the corner of a map but there is a potato enemy DD in one of the cap. Hitting the Fuso is easy and will give you alot of damage, but hitting the DD will win you the game in the long run plus you remove a late game obstacle since the longer DD lives in domination game the more useful they are end game when getting caps plus the enemy have 1 less DD to contest cap.

Yeap that's why you have to either strafe them or when fighting his fighters (single or both) you should fight near friendly AA so that there AA can help you shoot down the fighters as well. Its a whole different ball game with Lexi cause you face tier 10 ships with all the best AA in the game so while Inde and Ranger are not that much different (at least to me), the Lexi belongs to a different plane. I strongly suggest that you play lexi in strike loadout. I researched the strike deck and db first, then the hull B and finally tb. Playing strike lexi would be different from the 1/1/1 since you lack a fighter (I know i know captain obvious) but the key difference is when you end up in those tier 9/10 games you can rely on your friendly AA to help you plus with Lexi hull B unless it is another strike lexi and the CV snipe/attack is done properly the AA of the Lexi hull b is kinda like god tier and will shred planes like no tomorrow. No problem with the questions. You can ask them over here as well if you want: Kinda like a pub of CV players and they'll be happy to help.

More of the health rather than smarter players. A 1/1/1 lexi config will see your strike planes literally melt before you can do much in those tier 10 games. On the other hand with strike you can stack your 3 squads of db together and drop on say a Kurfust and knock out alot of its aa first then send yr tb to mop up without them dying. The difficulty comes cause you dont have a fighter so you're at the mercy of the enemy cv, unless it is a strike lexi as well. Plus you get 1000pd he bombs from lexi onwards and they can really cause a bit of hurt unlike earlier US db bombs. As much as possible fight enemy saipan fighters over friendly AA, be wary of strafe since saipan are the strafe king in this game and dont hesitate to strafe out of a lock if you notice thr enemy saipan's other fighter is gonna strafe you. Get the fighter mod in the 2nd upgrade slot for more fighter health and ammo. Also consider getting dogfighting expert since it increases your fighter's effectiveness over higher tier fighters and saipan has tier 9 while u have tier 7 so yr fighters are 20% more effective during those click fights. There is the added bonus of having more fighter ammo from the skill as well. I once got called a cheat and reported by this saipan player cause my fighters kept wrecking his in those 1 on 1 fighter fight. The amount of salt he had was ridiculous lol.

[x] Mino. With 8.9 detection and those awesome guns it can wreck any other DD, especially when contesting caps

Nah the AA is still within acceptable level given. See: This is the result from solely playing 1/1/1. Don't forget you also get to play against tier 5 and 6 ships and at those tiers apart from certain ships like the Cleveland, given the health of those tier 7 planes you can cause alot of havoc.

If you're use to running the stock loadout on the Inde and can use it well I would say that its still viable on the Ranger. I myself ran the stock loadout all the way till the Ranger and after unlocking the Lexi, swapped to strike to be able to do damage since the stock loadout on a Lexi does not really work in the high tier AA environment in terms of being able to deal decent damage. Skill wise its fine, CV skills are usually all the same but you may want to consider getting concealment expert for your next skill if you intend to proceed down the line as the Lexi and Midway have very poor concealment. Target wise, if you're in a Tier 9 game, I would suggest going after the DDs first and do more scouting at the start. Remember though that Akizuki has pretty good AA and USN DDs can have both good AA and the defensive AA ability so be careful when attacking them. If there are same tier BBs or CAs in the game you should go after them as well. Tier 8 and above CAs AA are all pretty tough so I won't touch them unless they're at low health. High tier BB is a gamble. If you're willing to risk your planes, send in the DB first and bomb the BB to knock out its AA guns, then follow up by a torp drop. I would say IJN bbs have the poorest AA (but by no means weak. My Amagi has wiped out 2 tier 9 TBs from a saipan even before they drop on me with just bft and aft), German is medium while USN is super so prioritize IJN BBs first, then German then USN. If you see any enemy BBs that are like 1/3 or 1/4 health its safe to drop on them also regardless of tier since their AA should be mostly knocked out. You must remember while CVs can do ton of damage, your goal is to win so even if you constantly end up in tier 9 games, plan your attacks to win and don't get demoralize. You kill their DDs they have less ship to scout or cap. You kill off low health ships your team get more pts while they get less. I would say Hiryu is the least of your problem. Knowing how to strafe and also use the strafe out mechanics when you get "locked" by enemy fighters is important like what commander_cornflakes said. With 7 fighters in a squadron you can afford to do so unlike a IJN one that has max 5 only. Your main problem would be the saipan since there planes are way faster. Learn to use friendly AA against enemy fighters. Fight above allied ships (excluding allied DDs) and use their AA to your advantage, especially in high tier games so that your allies's AA can shoot at the enemy planes and help you while you lock their planes in a fight.

I think I was told before that the shells dip while landing after the initial arc, so for example if you aim lower it'll just plunge into the water in front of the the targeted ship instead of its citadel. Lol I hope this makes sense. But yeah NC is a great ship. I had the same initial issue and feeling as you but after getting use to it the NC it is kinda ridiculous and very accurate. I've double citadelled another NC giving me broadside from 20km away before and got called a cheat. Out of the 3 tier 8 BBs I find it the most accurate, and tanky as long as you don't show your sides and either bow on or angle.

As far as I know you already get decent amount of xp for shooting down planes, especially since WG buffed it patches ago. You can have games where you do crap damage but shoot down alot of planes and still make some decent xp base on my experience.

Well apart from not being able to provide AA support, strike can scout, especially with a DB squad without bombs. They're fast enough that fighters can't catch up so they can literally zip across the map and provide scouting while your fighters have to choose either to chase them or remain with your fleet. If you chase, then the strike's other planes can just move in to hit your allied ships. If you don't chase, the DB still provides scouting info and the strike can just go find another target somewhere else.

a) In return for survivability. But yeah I agree maybe WG should decrease the reload time abit. b) I'm actually happy with the 1000 pd bomb because they do actual damage compared to the 500 pd ones which can't do much. He's referring to the loadouts. Remember in game when you have to pick your loadout? They're known as "mods" if I remember correctly like the MK6 MOD2 is the strike loadout if I'm not wrong for Inde. I would say play 1/1/1 on both Inde and Ranger. That is because at those tiers its still ok to strike with 1 tb or db given the lower tier ships you'll play against and the higher tier ones. However at tier 8 with the Lexi, a 1/1/1 is not feasible with all that AA going on, especially when you end up in tier 10 matches so swap to 0/1/3 so that you can do actual damage. That or 2/0/2 since you can stack 2 DB together but definitely not 1/1/1. Your planes will just melt and die.

I thinks its more of a comparative thing. If you take 1 USN TB squad and 1 IJN TB squad and drop against Nagato, the USN TB will come out of it alive with 1 or 2 planes loss but the IJN has a chance of losing the whole squad. The concept applies to the whole line. A Hakuryu can only 1 strike a Yamato if its stacks all 3 tb squad together and drop at the same time. If it sends in 1 TB at a time to drop on the Yamato it will lose all of its planes (and also why cross dropping on anything not a DD is a bad idea. Against DDs you need a cross drop to trap them. Against other class you need your planes to survive and drop on them) That is also why the 2 TB Midway is so strong. In a situation where both CVs stack their TB squad, Haku has 3 squad of 4 while Midway has 2 squad of 6. You can focus fire and probably take down more of the Haku squads if you're good enough since 4 planes per squad=less health=easier to shoot down. But Midway 6 planes per squad=more health=harder to shoot down so they can do whatever they want more so over a Hakuryu. An example of how hardy USN planes can be. I stacked 3 squadrons of lexi db (7 planes per squad, so 21 in total) together and dropped it on an Atlanta using defensive fire (dun ask why i did it lol). On the way in I lose 2 planes and on the way out another 3 planes. So in that 1 engagement with the Atlanta using defensive AA i loss only 5 out of 21 planes. Thats why my lexi can drop on tier 10 BBs without excessive loss. Stack them together, drop the bombs on a yamato, set fire on him while destroying his AA then send TB to finish it off. If you want to progress up the USN CV line you have to learn to plan your drops and pick targets wisely. Its like playing a game, IJN CV is like the easy mode of playing CV where you're easily rewarded because of the loadout you have. On the otherhand, USN CV is the hard mode, where unless you play correctly, you will not be rewarded. Have a look at this: Stranger's Midway game using a 2/1/2 loadout. Lol I'll probably need like a 2/2/3 to reach that damage but yeah its not that USN CVs can't do alot of damage, its just that they have to be played slightly differently compared to IJN CVs given their loadout. Wierd thing is I actually perform way better in my USN CVs I think lol.